Ariyur Nadu: it is a Village Panchayat in Kollihills taluk of Namakkal district, Tamil Nadu, India. Located 26 km East of Namakkal city, Valappur Nadu (4 km) , Gundur Nadu (4 km), Devanur Nadu (7 km), Thinnanur Nadu (8 km) and Naducombai (9 km) are the nearby villages to Ariyur Nadu. Thammampatti, Namagiripettai, Namakkal and Rasipuram are the nearest cities / towns. Tamil is the local language, spoken by the Malayali tribe.

Valappur Nadu: it is a Village Panchayat in Kollihills taluk of Namakkal district, Tamil Nadu, India. It is located 23 km towards East from the district headquarters Namakkal. Thinnanur Nadu (6 km), Devanur Nadu (6 km), Naducombai (7 km) and Gundur Nadu (7 km) are the nearest villages.

There are more than 50 hamlets between the two Nadus and most of them in the interior. Hence, three hamlets each from the two Nadus have been chosen from the July visit to the field sites. They are: Ariyur Nadu: Kulivalavu, Thegavoipatti and Paravaaru; Valappur Nadu: Karumoor oorpuram, Pallathuvalavu and Kulathukuzhi. For a study of contrast between hamlets, Nariyankadu hamlet of Chitoor Nadu has been chosen, as it is relatively well developed and is connected with roads and mobile communication networks.
 
 
SOME RELEVANT FACTS ABOUT THE KOLLIHILLS:
Kollihills (Kollimalai in Tamil) is a preserved mountain area of the Eastern Ghats, located at the Eastern border of Namakkal district of the State of Tamil Nadu, India. The elevation of the central region of the hills ranges from under 1,000 m to 1,350 m above mean sea level. The average annual precipitation in the Hills is 1,440 mm, which exceeds the State average. Forests occupy 44 per cent of the total geographical area of 28,293 km2; agricultural activities take place in 52 per cent of the area, leaving just 4 per cent for other activities (built-up area, roads). Irrigation is available to less than 15 per cent of the cropped area through springs and wells. The remaining area is rain-fed. The agricultural season starts with the onset of the Southwest Monsoon in June-July of every year.
     Kollihills is 50,000 strong (2018), 40,479 in Census 2011, distributed in 14 Nadus or Panchayats, or administrative village clusters. Sex ratio is 940 (2011). More than 95 per cent of the people are from the Malayali (= hill people) community. Literacy rate in the hills is about 52 per cent, with female literacy rate at 45 per cent. There is no secondary care hospital in the Kollihills and infant mortality is 30 per cent. Roads do cover a large part of the area but there is no regular transportation in several parts and so people walk from place to place. Every village is led by a Gounder (the village headman), who supervises the panchayat president (Block Resource Centre, Semmedu).

SCHOOL DROPOUTS AND SCHOOLING:
Till a few years ago, the school dropout rate was high among children but now education seems to be a priority for most parents. Most children now go to the government school in spite of the difficulties in reaching the school and poor quality of the facilities. Most government schools (primary, middle) have one or two rooms staffed with one or two teachers. The system of education in the Hills is not up to the mark. Dropout rate has been alarmingly high at 60 per cent, after middle schooling, due to lack of awareness about education. As many as 43 elementary / primary schools, 14 middle schools, 2 high schools and one higher secondary school are the statistics of Education Department of Kollihills Tribal Development Block. Today, however, the Hills boast of a good number of graduates and post-graduates, one or two of them pursuing doctoral dreams of theirs (Block Resource Centre, Semmedu).
 
 

Image 1: ​tribal farmers interacting 

Image 2: a discussion with the female SHG members of Paravaaru hamlet of Ariyur Nadu, July 20, 2018. 

Image 3: elementary school children in class at Thegavoipatti, Ariyur 

Image 1: a panoramic view of Kollihills. Malayali (hill people) tribes are an agricultural community, specializing in terrace cultivation of traditional crops, using traditional ecological knowledge. A typical house of the tribe is on the bottom right hand corner:

 

Image 2: a tribal woman at work, grabbing paddy hay for drying, in Nariyankadu hamlet of Chitoor Nadu. Un-winnowed paddy lies in the foreground. 

Image 3: children of a Valappur Nadu hamle 

Have the collapsing mud walls of the Kollihills gone for good?
 
ENHANCING CAPACITIES AND BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS FOR SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS AND DEVELOPMENT IN TRIBAL KOLLIHILLS, TAMIL NADU, INDIA
 
Principal Investigator (India): T. Vasantha Kumaran PhD
Principal Investigator (Canada): Bala Hyma PhD
Field Research Manager: N. Annammadevi PhD
Local Support: Mr. S. Prakasam M.A.,M.Ed., Ariyur Nadu
 
 
AN EXCERPT FROM THE REVISIT PROPOSAL:
A University Grants Commission Research Project 2001-03 on ‘Sustainable Biodiversity and Food Security through Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Tribal Kollihills of Tamil Nadu, India’ forms the backdrop for the present Kollihills Revisit Project, focusing on ‘Enhancing Capacities and Building Partnerships for Sustainable Livelihoods and Development’ in the Hills, using PAR-PRA approaches in two of the 14 Nadus of the Kollihills, namely, Ariyur Nadu and Valappur Nadu (Nadu is a Village Republic).

With a gender-aware approach, the Revisit is to promote sustainable livelihoods and development through the implementation of a participatory Community Action Plan (CAP) designed to reduce poverty in the two select Nadus; expand livelihood opportunities and enhance social welfare at the local/regional level while maintaining or enhancing the environmental / ecological support system. CAP is a participatory and catalytic process designed to reach and mobilize society’s marginalized groups, particularly the poor, women, youth and children. The CAP process focuses on empowerment by assisting existing local groups (SHGs, tribal activist groups) to establish effective organizational structures and to enhance their management skills, as well as ensuring their full participation in the development process. CAP, besides several development thrusts, facilitates the provision of effective extension services to support the implementation of locally-identified strategies and initiatives.
 
 
The major objectives of the 2-year Revisit Project are:
1. To enhance the capabilities of women and men, girls and boys of two select Nadu communities – Ariyur Nadu and Valappur Nadu – through providing them with leadership skills, organizational management and community development skills.

2. To motivate, develop and promote a Partnership Initiative among communities, local governments and NGOs/CBOs to enhance sustainable livelihoods and development opportunities and community resource management towards poverty reduction.


3. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the partnerships and the capacities through successfully developing a Community Action Plan of the people, by the people and for the people of the two villages. 

 
The Revisit Project concerns about 12-15 thousand tribal people in 50 plus hamlets in the two Nadus of our concern. The tribes, known as ‘malayalis’ (= hill people) live in traditional settlements collectively called ‘nadus’. There are 14 nadus in the Kollihills (a population of about 50,000 now). As the tribes are scattered in several hundred hamlets and on the hill slopes and in intermontane basins with often different terrains, only two village panchayats are chosen. In the tribal Kollihills, the poor constitute between 20 per cent and 33 per cent. In terms of food security, the hills are doing well and the difference in the tribal areas is higher primarily because food, or substitutes of food, is available from the forests of the hills.
 
The CAP is expected to be formulated for the two villages but much will need to be done before it could be implemented. It will have to be further shaped and refined even while building capacities in women and girls and men and boys of the Nadus. There will be development extension on specific aspects of the CAP and the economic activities through a process of information, education and communication. A cadre of people who could administer and manage the CAP should also be created. Tribal farmers’ associations, women self-help groups, and youth groups of the Nadus could be the ones the Revisit Project would focus on for such a cadre of the CAP implementers.
In the long term, the issues and skills addressed through community development activities of the CAP would allow community members to move towards self-mobilized levels of participation on ecosystem management as well as other social, economic and cultural issues.

The tribal poor lack basic entitlements, including access to land and water resources, access to credit and savings, and access to information, training and technologies. This situation is exacerbated by the low levels of literacy, a lack of representation of marginalized groups among the tribe, limited organizational skills and a poor knowledge of available program opportunities.


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